Tuesday, October 27, 2009

"The Tenth Amendment is the foundation of the Constitution."-Thomas Jefferson

The 10th Amendment to the Unites States Constitution reads "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

The Constitution does not give Congress the authorization to override state laws. It is now being reported that 19 states have either, or are in the process, of passing legislation which will prohibit their citizens to have to purchase federal health care insurance. This debate is sure to continue in the months ahead.

Here is an interesting story from 2004 on rebelling against the government.---

When To Revolt by Wesley Allen Riddle

The cords that bind the Union together are weaker than they have been in more than a century. Many states are entering into political revolt against federal encroachment. But this situation is no departure from American tradition. Revolting against consolidated government has been a key to keeping the government in check.

The Founders themselves provided criteria by which to judge the proper occasion for action--both in terms of empirical precedent during the American Revolution, as well as in terms of written, theoretical discourse.

Friday, October 16, 2009

The First Amendment is part of the Bill of Rights which the Constitutional Convention added to the Constitution in 1787 at the demand of several of the delegates who wanted to ensure limiting the power of the government with specific definitions of civil liberties. The Bill of Rights was adopted by the states in December 1791.

First Amendment:Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

“It appears that some school officials, teachers, and parents have assumed that religious expression of any type is either inappropriate or forbidden altogether in public schools; however, nothing in the First Amendment converts our public schools into religion-free zones.”-Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States of America

"The Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have [to] bare the secrets of government and inform the people."-Hugo Black

"Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost."-Thomas Jefferson

Thursday, October 8, 2009

"'Tis done. We have become a nation."Benjamin Rush, on the ratification of the Constitution, letter to Boudinot, July 9, 1788

"Besides, to lay and collect internal taxes in this extensive country must require a great number of congressional ordinances, immediately operation upon the body of the people; these must continually interfere with the state laws and thereby produce disorder and general dissatisfaction till the one system of laws or the other, operating upon the same subjects, shall be abolished."Federal Farmer, Antifederalist Letter, October 10, 1787

"If men of wisdom and knowledge, of moderation and temperance, of patience, fortitude and perseverance, of sobriety and true republican simplicity of manners, of zeal for the honour of the Supreme Being and the welfare of the commonwealth; if men possessed of these other excellent qualities are chosen to fill the seats of government, we may expect that our affairs will rest on a solid and permanent foundation."Samuel Adams, letter to Elbridge Gerry, November 27, 1780

Monday, October 5, 2009

We, as Americans, should know our Bill of Rights which are the first ten amendments which passed in 1789. Did you know that our current Bill of Rights were actually the 3rd-12th amendments proposed? Do you know why we have our Bill of Rights?

Many of the original 13 states were not overly thrilled with the new Constitution when it was signed in September 1787. Some states' delegates only agreed to sign the Constitution when promises were made to further define some of the powers of the government.

In March 1789 at the Congress meeting in New York City, it was noted several states believed "in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added ..." to the Constitution.

Twelve amendments were proposed. The first two were not passed. The first was on the number of representatives allowed for each state and the second was on compensation for Congress.

The remaining proposed articles were adopted and ratified, thus becoming the first ten amendments or the Bill of Rights as we know them today.

Reference: The Library of Congress, Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789

Sunday, October 4, 2009

"History is clear that the first ten amendments to the Constitution were adopted to secure certain common law rights of the people, against invasion by the Federal Government."-- Bell v. Hood, 71 F. Supp., 813, 816 (1947)

"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."-- Daniel Webster

"No one can read our Constitution without concluding that the people who wrote it wanted their government severely limited; the words 'no' and 'not' employed in restraint of government power occur 24 times in the first seven articles of the Constitution and 22 more times in the Bill of Rights."-- Edmund A. Opitz

Friday, October 2, 2009

Now seems like a great time for all Americans to reaffirm their pledge to the support of the United States Constitution. Lincoln had a statement on the patriots which was in a speech he gave in 1838 that seems to focus on what our forefathers were happy to do. Are we?

As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor; --let every man remember that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the character of his own, and his children's liberty.-Abraham Lincoln, 1838

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Freedom of speech? Are there those who would seek to deprive us of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution? Here are some quotes on the subject...

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”—Harry Truman

"Once the government can demand of a publisher the names of the purchasers of his publications, the free press as we know it disappears. Then the spectre of a government agent will look over the shoulder of everyone who reads. The purchase of a book or pamphlet today may result in a subpoena tomorrow. Fear of criticism goes with every person into the bookstall. The subtle, imponderable pressures of the orthodox lay hold. Some will fear to read what is unpopular, what the powers-that-be dislike. When the light of publicity may reach any student, any teacher, inquiry will be discouraged. The books and pamphlets that are critical of the administration, that preach an unpopular policy in domestic or foreign affairs, that are in disrepute in the orthodox school of thought will be suspect and subject to investigation. The press and its readers will pay a heavy price in harassment. But that will be minor in comparison with the menace of [345 U.S. 41, 58] the shadow which government will cast over literature that does not follow the dominant party line. If the lady from Toledo can be required to disclose what she read yesterday and what she will read tomorrow, fear will take the place of freedom in the libraries, book stores, and homes of the land. Through the harassment of hearings, investigations, reports, and subpoenas government will hold a club over speech and over the press."—U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas,UNITED STATES v. RUMELY, 345 U.S. 41 (1953)

“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.”—Benjamin Franklin